Now have your wine and eat it too. (Source: Winecream)
Imagine luscious chocolate ice cream with bitter chocolate chips, steeped in the heady flavour of a Cabernet. Why would you not want a summer filled with wine ice cream, and why isn’t it here in India as yet? Wine ice cream has been leading the trend of food-booze mashups in the US. Suddenly, everyone in the country wants a scoop (or a tub) of wine ice cream. Even Hilary Clinton, a self-confessed fan of the boozy frozen dessert, publicly endorsed it recently.
This is what the former New York senator had to say about the boozy frozen dessert: “Three words: wine ice cream. As a senator, I started something called New York Farm Day. We’d bring producers from all over the state to Washington to show off the best New York has to offer. One year, we had a winemaker set up next to a family-owned ice cream maker. Long story short, someone was having a really good time, and after a few glasses of wine, they poured some cabernet over a bowl of ice cream. Soon everyone was trying it. Today, Mercer’s exports its wine ice cream to 15 countries.”
Chocolate ice cream and Cabernet in one scoop. (Source: Mercer’s)
Wine ice cream is exactly what the name suggests: wine-infused ice cream that includes 5-10 per cent alcohol. New York-based brand Mercer’s has been making wine ice cream since 2006 in flavours such as Red Raspberry Chardonnay and Chocolate Cabernet. Baltimore-based Crossroads Company has been selling Winecream, its fruit wine and gourmet ice creams at local festivals such as Food and Wine Festival since 2014. Winecream was born on a Christmas night two years ago when inspiration struck after several rounds of wine and ice cream: Why not just mix the two? Winecream, available in flavours such as strawberry, mixed berry, pineapple and peach is mixed with fruits and nuts after which it is flash frozen in liquid nitrogen at minus 320 degrees F.
But what do you pair wine ice cream with? You can add fruit slices, candies, chocolate bits or cookie pieces to the mix.
